DEPICTION
Altrean is always depicted as a human paladin wearing full plate and wielding a glaive. Depictions of him in battle generally have him outlined in bright light.

FOLLOWERS

Altrean’s followers come in many different stripes. Clerics of Altrean wear blue robes emblazoned with Altrean’s holy symbol. Each of Altrean’s temples also contains a Traveler’s Guide, a person devoted to helping travelers get where they need to go, often providing food, supplies, and a warm bed for the night.

Altrean has a decent-sized following of paladins who travel around in search of injustices to right, and rights to restore. Often, when issues of cultural sensitivity are at hand, this involves relocating victims or offenders to areas with more appropriate laws.

Followers of Altrean live by the following code:

All living beings are the same as long as they can live within a civilized society.

As long as a society is generally good, the details are relatively unimportant.

People are better off when among like-minded people.

People should not be forced to change, but they should want to.

As a corollary to the above, undead are considered blasphemous since undeath is rarely a voluntary transformation.

MYTHOLOGY
Legend has it that long ago, Altrean was a mortal paladin with a seething hatred toward undead. He spent many a year ending zombie infestations, putting skeletons in their rightful place, and righting wrongs so ghosts could rest in peace. Beyond his dealings with the undead, however, he was laid back for a paladin, which earned him a reputation with the general public as the “nice” paladin, and with other paladins as a coward. As long as people were generally good, Altrean didn’t see much need to do anything, as he never dreamed of holding other people up to his own personal standards. The most he ever intervened was to help stabilize a few local governments, subsequently working with them to create laws that protected individual rights.

Altrean would occasionally team up with other warriors in the struggle against evil, and one such warrior was none other than Handrick One-Hand. When Handrick ascended to godhood, Altrean was happy for his friend that he had received such a blessing, but also pitied him for the way that he was changed by his power. Altrean offered to help Handrick in any way he could but received no response from the mad god. However, as time passed it became clear that Handrick had indeed heard Altrean’s offers, as Altrean found that, little by little, he had randomly accumulated new power to help in his crusade against the undead. Altrean once again went to Handrick and pledged his support, but all he heard in response was “as you have helped me, so you shall help me.” As the years passed and Altrean continued to bring rest to the dead, he realized that he was not aging, and that his strength was growing when it should have been declining. As his power grew, so too did his feelings of obligation to protect the innocent and to promote the rights of individuals. His battles became larger and in some ways more obtuse. Sometimes he felt like he had used all his power to no avail and that nothing could help him. Always at these times he would hear the echo of Handrick‘s words in his mind, and he’d discover new power, urging him to overcome all obstacles.

Over the years, Altrean began to have followers of his own, and as his power grew, so did tales of his greatness and his belief in the freedom and rights of good people. As the tales spread, his followers multiplied, and eventually he was no longer worshiped as a powerful champion of Handrick, but as a god in his own right.

While Altrean feels he owes Handrick for much of what he has become, he has never felt the need to take orders from him. He has always relied on his own code of ethics, and indeed often feels that while Handrick and his followers are a force for good in the world, it’s better to use his powers to actively fight for goodness and peace and not just promote good-will to all sapient beings.